A GUI is an interface which allows a user to interact with a device by means of graphical elements, as compared with older text-based interfaces in which a user typed commands. Some graphical elements, herein called graphical control elements or widgets, are selectable and associated with an action to be performed if selected. Such selection is typically done by clicking on the element (in case of a touchscreen, the click may be called tap).
In modern GUIs there are typically lots of different graphical elements arranged in a predetermined order but loaded separately. This implies that when the GUI is updated, graphical elements may unexpectedly change position in the GUI as another graphical element is loaded and presented in the GUI. This may surprise a user which is about to click on a certain graphical control element but instead misses said graphical control element and possibly unintentionally clicks another graphical control element whereby the device performs an action which was not intended by the user.
This problem is illustrated in FIG. 1, which shows a touchscreen GUI of a device at three different sequential points in time (denoted a-c). In (a) a user of the device wants to select an info button for getting more information about something. However, as he/she is just about to tap the info button, the GUI updates at (b) and a picture advertising the sale of an item (for example a car) is inserted above the info button, leading to the info button moving and the user by mistake clicking a button relating to the advertisement. In (c), the user has, as a consequence of clicking the wrong button, purchased the item instead of getting the information he/she really wanted.